Another dead whale

[Broad Bill]

Originally Posted by Exit135

It's a simple analysis, cost vs. benefit, as it has always been and always will be.

Exit,

While I agree with your comment that's the way it should be, there are any number of instances where decisions being made by the federal government don't follow that formula. Meaning cost outweighs the benefit but when you get politics involved decisions are made for reasons other than cost benefit analysis. Do you think every project involved in the recently passed $1.7 trillion Omnibus bill passed by the outgoing Congress was cost justified. Not a chance.

In addition, there's two major problems I personally have with how these wind farms are being managed. First this is all backed by foreign investment, in particular a Denmark company. Current administration can propose a $6.8 trillion budget, approve a $1.7 trillion Omnibus spending bill before the new house took effect but as a country we can't invest $100 billion in our own green energy infrastructure. Makes absolutely no sense.

Second, and based on NOAA's own admission, the true cost and consequential costs and the true benefits of this project are indeterminable at this stage because this is new technology and we have insufficient data to understand what economic consequences or benefits wind farm development could potentially cause. Just remember, if these wind farms have an impact on any part of the marine food chain, it's going to have an impact on the entire food chain. And what impact will all this have on the larval stage and early stage development of all species including mammals, fish and crustaceans. No one can say for sure because no studies have been done to determine the impacts. This issue should have been addressed 20 years ago by our government while we had time. Instead the federal government sat on their hands and now we're moving at light speed without regard for unforeseen and potentially severe economic and environmental consequences which I believe we're already beginning to see.